During the 20th century, European societies were faced with the task of reacting to the new challenges posed by the basic processes of industrial modernity - such as high industrialization, the emergence of modern industrial workers, urbanization, mass migration, the emergence of a political mass market, scientification and 'Disenchantment of the World' - went out. To this end, they created different but comparable institutions, mechanisms, constellations of actors, patterns of interpretation, forms of knowledge and discourses. From a European perspective, the volume investigates the extent to which their specific forms were determined by the respective 'patterns of order' - as the largely nationally-specific ensemble of dominant ideas of order, key concepts, social and time-specific experiences and problems.